It is known to assemble books and photo albums from media of single- and double-sided printed documents and photographs. Traditional bookbinding methods included gluing and/or stitching a set of pages together along one edge. This bound edge was then attached to a book cover, either directly, or through attachment to a spine sheet. A spine sheet spanned the spine of the cover without being attached to it, and was adhered only to the two sides of the cover. The spine sheet allowed a user to fully open a finished book because it would flex separately from the spine of the cover. A hot glue method, traditionally an animal glue, or today a synthetic adhesive, typically binds the bound edges of the manuscript to the spine sheet or cover, and is used to bind the spine sheet to the cover.
Today there is a prolific variety of printing technologies, for example, traditional photographic, inkjet, electrophotographic, laser, hot wax transfer, thermal dye sublimation, and thermal ablation, in addition to traditional printing technologies of gravure, typeset, manual manuscript illustration, intaglio, woodcut, etching, stamping, in-mould printing, flexography, screen printing, and others, any of which can be used for home, retail, or commercial applications. Each one of these technologies produces its own range of printed output with different media types, stocks weights, sizes, formats, thicknesses, and surface finishes. Each also has different hygroscopic properties and chemical sensitivities, making binding of different media types together a technical challenge.
Today, more people print at home, or in a retail setting, such as in a grocery store, drug store, or specialty retailer. There is also a growing movement again in specialty, small-print presses. Such non-traditional book-makers, specialty presses and the home user, like to experiment with binding different types of materials together, and expect an easy-to-use process for binding materials.
Some commonly available binding systems for binding standard media types and sizes require modifying the media by perforating it to accommodate clamp- and ring-type binders. Alternatively, special media that is already perforated can be used. Clamp- and ring-type binders do not have the appearance and function of conventional soft or hard covered books. Further, a user has to ensure the perforations appear in the margins and do not obscure images or type on the media.
Many people now combine media to form scrapbooks centered around photographic images. Alternately, traditional photobooks are still desired by many. Different means of allowing the home user and retailer to easily assemble such books have been developed.
For example, the bindings system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,742,809 B2 “Photo Album Constructed From A Strip Of Images,” by Frosig et al., assigned to Eastman Kodak Company, shows how a continuous strip media format is used to form a set of pages for a photo album. The pages are interconnected by means of fan folding and adhesively binding a printed continuous media strip so that the pre-formed bundle will bond to a cover with a conventional pressure sensitive adhesive. Because there are no loose pages, individual pages can not become dislodged from the conventional pressure sensitive adhesive on the cover spine. In addition, the end sections of the adhesive covered continuous fan-folded strip can be used to attach to and reinforce front and back book covers, if desired, increasing the strength of the overall bond.
Many printers can not print on continuous strips of media and special formatting would be required for the information and/or images to be properly aligned with the fan folded pages. In addition, some printing technologies do not work well with adhesive coated media, which is required to attach the inner surfaces of the fan folded pages. Alternately, a user would have to apply the adhesive manually. In order to properly align and fold a continuous length of media, the media must be pre-scored, pre-creased, or pre-perforated in order to facilitate proper construction of the fan-folded page bundle. If a continuous length of media is not modified by the media manufacturer, equipment to perform these media modifications pre- or post-printing would be required by the user. Equipment of this type is readily available but requires time, user skill, and, if improperly used, can damage a finished print rendering it useless.
Another system for binding standard document types uses preformed hard or soft book covers with thermally activated adhesive pre-deposited along the inner surface of the book cover spine. This system requires binding equipment to apply heat and pressure to a special cover once the desired media is in place. The equipment clamps the media in place against the adhesive on the spine while it melts the adhesive. After the adhesive is melted, the bound book must be left to cool in order for the adhesive to set and adhere the pages to the cover spine. This method requires energy, heat, and significant time to produce the final product. In some systems, the cover and media must remain clamped during the cooling process. This method is not suitable for all media, for example, plastic sheets, thermal dye sublimation and electrophotography prints, and other prints sensitive to the high temperatures required to activate the thermal adhesive. This temperature sensitivity could result in damaged media or could affect the quality of the printing. In addition, once bonded, the solidified thermal adhesive lacks flexibility, which prevents the pages from laying flat and makes it difficult to hold the book open and turn the pages.
A supposedly more user-friendly system, US20080093836 A1, “Activation And Deactivation Mechanisms For Media Binders,” by Hoarau et al., describes a clamp-type binder that provides a simple, equipment free, instant binding solution wherein the clamping mechanism is built into a preformed binder. The clamp is deployed by using the rigid book cover, bent backwards as a deployment lever, to open the clamp. The pages in this binder type are held in a tight bundle and can not lay flat. In addition, the binder must have a hard cover in order to act as a lever for the clamp, and does not maintain the appearance and function of a conventional book. However, this book allows removal and addition of pages by a user after formation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,181 “A One Piece Self-binding System for Binding Documents,” Ebel, like US20080093836 A1, discloses a pressure clamping mechanism built into the spine of a preformed binder. In this approach, however, a metal strip is used to keep the spring clamp opened until the media is placed in position. A pull ring is used to pull the strip free, allowing the clamp to close on the media. It is very difficult to re-open the clamp, making the book contents relatively permanent. U.S. Pat. No. 5,061,139 “Method for Applying Hard and Soft Covers to Bound or Unbound Documents,” by Zoltner, describes a similar system where a U-shaped channel is bound into the spine of soft or hard covers, and the channel is crimped over the media to hold it in place.
Another known approach to providing a book binding system is demonstrated by GB2316358 A, “Album for adhesively binding a stack of pictures,” by Paul Druckerei Kieser. This method is similar to conventional bookbinding methods. This system has a pressure sensitive adhesive coated on a flexible paper substrate that is attached to a book cover, as illustrated in FIGS. 1a and 1b. The adhesive photo print binding system 10 of Kieser has a cover 20 creased 60 at the edges of the spine 65 to allow the book cover 20 to open and close. The cover 20 has a flexible substrate 30 attached to the front and back inside edges of the cover 20 by an adhesive 50 over the spine 65, which is shown in more detail in inset 40, shown in FIG. 1b. The flexible substrate 30 is not attached to the book spine 65, and forms a floating spine section 90. A pressure sensitive adhesive 80 and an adhesive release layer (not shown) cover the flexible substrate in the area directly over the book cover spine, facing away from the book spine. A user must remove the release layer and expose the pressure sensitive adhesive to attach a stack of photographs 70 to the adhesive 80. The user must carefully align the stack of photographs with the adhesive before final placement. In addition the user must slide and press the external edge of the book spine across a sharp edge in order to set the pressure sensitive adhesive. This technique, along with the initial alignment process, both rely on the rigidity that a stack of heavy stock photographic media provides. The user must align and attach the stack of photographs to the exposed adhesive in a single action. Other less rigid medias, such a plain paper, would be difficult to align and push into the exposed adhesive as required. Once assembled, the flexible substrate deforms when the finished book is opened to compensate for stress on the page edge contact bond as the pages of the book are turned. Because the flexible substrate is not attached at the spine, the stress from the weight and movement of the pages is concentrated at the points where the flexible substrate is attached to the front and rear of the book cover. These stress point are prone to tearing. Further, because only the edges of the individual pages contact the thin layer of pressure sensitive adhesive, pages are prone to detach and fall out of the book.
There is a need in the industry of book making for a system, method and book whereby the book is easily assembled by an unskilled user using user-selected media, and wherein the book retains the media with sufficient force to prevent loss of media over time or during use.